Dear Jewish Response Staff,

There is something that always bothered me about Shabbos and the 39 rules, and maybe you know the answer. The 39 types of work are learned out from the mishkan, right? The Jews stopped working on the mishkan for Shabbos, right? So how come they sacrifices animals on Shabbos? Isnt slaughtering an animal one of the types of work?

Yosef

Dear Yosef,

The Torah says, And on the seventh day, a Sabbath to the L-rd your G-d; you shall do no work (Exodus 20:10). What is work? As every student of Jewish law knows, there are thirty-nine categories of work forbidden on Shabbos. In the Talmud (Shabbos 49a) these categories are derived from the work done to build the Tabernacle. For example, the Jews building the tabernacle slaughtered rams to use their skins for the roof of the Tabernacle, so slaughter is forbidden on Shabbos. They lit fire in order to heat herbs to dye the curtains, so lighting a fire and cooking are both forbidden on Shabbos.

The commentary of Rashi derives from Exodus 35:2-5 that the work on the Tabernacle was halted on Shabbos. Yet we know that the service in the Tabernacle continued uninterrupted on Shabbos. Offerings were slaughtered and the menorah was lit. Why does the service supercede Shabbos while the construction of the Tabernacle did not supercede Shabbos?

This question becomes even stronger according to Rabbi Eliezer, who says in Shabbos 130a that whenever a mitzvah supercedes Shabbos, preparing for it also supercedes Shabbos. For example, circumcision is permitted on Shabbos, so one who does not have a knife may cut down trees, build a fire and forge a knife to perform the circumcision. If so, why is it not permitted to build the Tabernacle on Shabbos as a preparation for the offerings which are permitted on Shabbos?

Furthermore, why indeed does the Talmud derive the 39 categories of work from the building of the Tabernacle, but not from the service in the Tabernacle? Spraying the blood of an offering on the altar was part of the service, yet it is not a category of work. Pouring wine on the altar and taking off the ashes were part of the service, yet there is no prohibition to pour wine or pick up ashes on Shabbos.

The answer lies in the very reason behind Shabbos observance. The Ten Commandments read: Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy& because in six days the L-rd made heaven and earth, the sea and all they contain, and He rested on the seventh day (Exodus 20:11). If Shabbos is indeed a memorial to the creation of heaven and earth, perhaps we too should rest from creating heaven and earth, sun and moon, sea and dry land  but we cannot do those things in any case, so our rest day would not be any different from a workday. The Torahs solution to this problem is the Tabernacle, a small, man-made world. Just as G-d made the world as our dwelling place, we made the Tabernacle as G-ds dwelling place, so to speak.

This is explicit in Exodus 25:8: And they shall make for Me a Temple, and I will dwell in their midst. Solomon said upon completing the First Temple in Jerusalem, I have surely built a residence for You (I Kings 8:13). The Midrash also draws this comparison between the world and the Tabernacle when it says, On the day the Tabernacle was erected, G-d was as happy as when He created heaven and earth. The Midrash finds more parallels between Creation and the Tabernacle: G-d carries the world, and we carry the Tabernacle. G-d guards us, and the Levites guard the Tabernacle. G-d lights up the world for us, and we light the menorah for Him in the Tabernacle. The sky is called a tent (Isaiah 40:22) and the Tabernacle is called a tent (Leviticus 1:1). The sky has stars, and the ceiling of the Tabernacle had golden clips (Shemos Rabbah 35,36). Betzalel, who built the Tabernacle, knew how to combine the letters through which heaven and earth were created (Talmud, Berachos 55a).

In imitation of G-ds resting on the seventh day from creating the world, we rest on Shabbos from the work done to build the Tabernacle, the world that we built. But G-d does not rest on Shabbos from guiding the world. Since the world was created, G-d has guided it every single day, punishing the wicked, rewarding the righteous and matching husbands with wives. In imitation of this, we continue the service in the Tabernacle on Shabbos, and its various steps are not defined as work.